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Rewriting the Conquest of Mexico in Carlos Fuentes's Novella, the Two Shores Acta Scientiarum

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Rewriting the Conquest of Mexico in Carlos Fuentes's Novella, the Two Shores Acta Scientiarum Acta Scientiarum. Human and Social Sciences ISSN: 1679-7361 [email protected] Universidade Estadual de Maringá Brasil Schmitz, John Robert When lies become the truth: rewriting the conquest of Mexico in Carlos Fuentes's novella, The Two Shores Acta Scientiarum. Human and Social Sciences, vol. 28, núm. 1, 2006, pp. 1-6 Universidade Estadual de Maringá Maringá, Brasil Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=307324792001 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative When lies become the truth: rewriting the conquest of Mexico in Carlos Fuentes’s novella, The Two Shores John Robert Schmitz Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), 13083 -970, Cidade Universitária, Barão Geraldo, Campinas, São Paulo, Brasil. e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT. This paper owes its inspiration to Jay’s (1997) article on Carlos Fuentes’s The Two Shores (Las dos Orillas, in the original, and As Duas Margens in the Portuguese version), one of the long short stories in the celebrated M exican author’s collected stories El Naranjo, translated as The Orange Tree and A Laranjeira, in the respective English and Portuguese versions. Jay bases his analysis on a number of authors in Translation Studies 1. Translation and mistranslation is just o ne aspect of this very rich and complex narrative. I argue that Jay’s use of the word “translation” to refer to Fuentes’s novella is too broad to be useful if one takes into account the existence of different types of translation and varied strategies employed by translators to deal with literary, technical, commercial, legal and Biblical texts in their daily work (Sager, 1998). Key words: rewriting, translation, Carlos Fuentes, globalization, post -modernism, conquest of México. RESUMO. Quando as mentiras se tornam a verdade: a re-escrita da conquista do México no conto As Duas Margens de Carlos Fuentes. Este trabalho deve a sua inspiração ao artigo de autoria de Jay (1997) sobre o conto The Two Shores (“Las dos Orillas”, na língua fonte, e “As Duas Margens” na versão em língua portuguesa), um dos contos incluídos na coletânea El naranjo escrito por Carlos Fuentes, célebre autor mexicano. Jay baseia a sua análise nos trabalhos de especialistas no campo de Estudos da Tradução (ver nota de rodapé 1). A (in)fidelidade é somente um aspecto desta narrativa complexa. Argumento que o uso por parte de Jay do vocábulo “tradução ” é abrangente demais para ser útil, levando em consideração a existência de diferentes tipos de tradução e de uma gama de estratégias utilizadas por parte de tradutores no trabalho diário para traduzir textos literários, técnicos, comerciais, jurídicos e bíblicos (Sager, 1998). Palavras-chave: reescrita, tradução, Carlos Fuentes, globalização, pós-modernismo, conquista do México. Introduction events that brought about the fall of the Aztec Empire and the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish The Two Shores forces led by Hernán Cortés. This short story Carlos Fuentes’s novel The Two Shores, part1 of a recounts the role of one Jerônimo Aguilar who collection of short stories included in the volume mistranslates Cortes’s words, thereby lying to the The Orange Tree (El naranjo)2, deals with the tragic defeated Guatemuz, but in reality, telling him the truth. His “mistranslation” communicates what will indeed come about: “You will be my prisoner, today. 1All references cited by the authors I present in the final bibliography are provided in footnotes in this paper to help interested readers locate the sources. I have not I will torture you by burning your feet and those of read all the sources cited by them. Cf. P. de Man, Conclusion: Walter Benjamin’s The Task of the Translator. pgs. 73-105. The Resistance to Theory. Minneapolis: your comrades until you confess where the rest of University of Minneapolis Press, 1986; B. Johnson. Taking Fidelity your uncle Montezuma’s treasure is…” (Fuentes, Philosophically, In: Gramham, J. E. ed. Difference in Translation. Ithaca: Cornell 3 University Press, 1985; J. Derrida. Des Tours de Babel, In Graham, op.cit.; S. 1995, p. 10) . Basnett and Lefevere, A. Introduction. p. 1-13. Translation, History and Culture. Ed. Basnett, S. and Lefevere A. London: Pinter Publishers, 1990; E. Gentzler, Aguilar came to the New World with hi s Spanish Contemporary Translation Theories. London: Routledge, 1993. compatriots, was shipwrecked, lost in the wild, and 2The collection of short stories in which The Two Shores is included bears the name The Orange Tree (El Naranjo or A Laranjeira). The orange has its origin in Persia and traveled around the world and was introduced to the New World as a result of the Spanish Conquest. It represents the globe and might be considered Literária. (Federal University of Pernambuco), v. 17, no. 2, p. 223-242, (julho), a symbol of globalization. Aguilar (Fuentes, 1995, p.14) points to tomatoes, 2004 and M.F.Guillén. Is globalization civilizing, destructive or feeble: A critique of turkeys, corn, potatoes and chocolate as items never seen in Europe. The horse, five key debates in the social science literature. Ann. Rev. of Sociol. 27, p. 235- extinct in America, returned with the conquest. I have argued elsewhere that the 260, 2001. Spanish Conquest of the Americas is one of the early instances of globalization. 3I have chosen to use the English translation of Fuentes’s collection of stories: Cf. J.R. SCHMITZ. O inglês como língua internacional, globalização e o futuro de Carlos Fuentes, The Orange Tree (Translated by Alfred Macadam) New York: outras línguas e culturas: uma reflxão. Investigações: Lingüística e Teoria Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995. Acta Sci. Human Soc. Sci. Maringá, v. 28, n. 1, p. 1-6, 2006 2 Schmitz then found and adopted by the Indians. He learned All this I saw. The fall of the great Aztec city in the their language, took on their customs and referred to moan of conch shells, the clash of steel against flint them as his brothers. We have, in this instance, an and the fire of the Castilian cannon. I saw the burnt excellent example of the “double bind” on the part water of the lake where stood the Great Tenochtitlán, two times the size Córdoba (Fuentes, of Aguilar, an identity with the Aztecs, on one hand, 1995, p. 3). and an allegiance, on the other, with his fellow Spaniards and his commander Cortés, that is, and Aguilar’s reference to the “clash of steel against identity with the “two shores”, with two worlds, the flint” and the “fire of the Castilian cannon” are European and the American. He agonizes about his indeed telling for the Aztecs were doomed to be special situation: “But I found myself divided conquered by a relatively small number of Spanish between Spain and the New World. I knew both troops “fewer than six hundred” who were militarily shores.” (Fuentes, 1995, p. 22). Aguilar marks his superior with swords, horses and fire power dual identity very explicitly in the use of pronouns “subdued an empire nine times larger than Spain in for he attributes his death to “… a bouquet of territory and three times larger in population” plagues bestowed on me by my own Indian brothers (Fuentes, 1995, p. 6-7). in exchange for the evils we Spaniards visited on them.” (Fuentes, 1995, p. 3-4). The protagonist The conquest of new Spain: Bernal Diaz del Castillo stresses this again when he remarks: “ We Spaniards Fuentes’s long short story The Two Shores retells killed something more than the power of the the conquest of the Aztec Empire as well as the part Indians” (Fuentes, 1995, p. 9). Aguilar makes his Aguilar played in that event. It is based on The new identity clear: Conquest of New Spain by another eyewitness to the I fell in love with my new people, with their simple event, the Spanish historian, Bernal Diaz del Castillo way of dealing with the matters of life, letting the (London: Penguin, 1963) who cites Aguilar in many daily necessities take care of themselves naturally but instances in his account. Aguilar did indeed act as a without diminishing the importance of s erious translator for Cortés, but there is no suggestion in things (Fuentes, 1995, p. 40). The Conquest that he (Aguilar) mistranslated Cortés’s The structure of this lengthy short story is words. As narrator, Aguilar provides his own view of ingenious. Fuentes has his main protagonist and the what happened and what did not happen. Aguilar narrator Jerônimo de Aguilar relate his story from interprets his experience in this meeting of two the grave: “I just died of buboes 4. A horrible death, worlds and approximation of Europea n and Indian. painful, incurable” (Fuentes, 1995, p. 3). Aguilar is a What is new here is Aguilar’s reflective and deceased narrator but indeed a very self -aware one evaluative stance with respect to the conquest of for he agonizes, in this posthumous narration, over Mexico. his betrayal of Cortés via his unfaithful translation as Let’s not fool ourselves. No one escaped unscathed well as inability to prevent the decimation of the from this venture of conquest and discovery --- Indians by the Spanish conquistadores. In death, he neither the conquered who witnessed the actually threats about his inability to stop the course destruction of their world, nor the conquerors, who of history. In this story, we listen to the voice of a never achieved the total satisfaction of their dead man who while indeed not at all “conscious” ambitions, suffering endless injustices and actually suffers the pangs of “conscience”, his f eeling disenchantments (Fuentes, 1995, p.
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